The world’s fashion capital went on a partial lockdown mode from Friday morning ahead of the evening’s Olympic Games grand opening on the River Seine.

This is the first time in the 128-year history of the modern games, conceptualized by French Baron Pierre de Coubertein, that the ceremonial opening of the Olympics is being held outside the main stadium.

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Ahead of what promises to be a unique experience for the Parisians who have remained here and for the rest of the world watching the television broadcast, this City of Light has imposed a lot of restrictions for the common public to move around in the city.

This city is served by an exhaustive public transport system consisting mainly of metro train services (more than a dozen routes), trams on roads, buses and RER (double decker fast trains).

Today public announcements were made to alight at certain midway metro points and take a circular route to their respective designations that also included, on occasions, long walks of more than a kilometre.

Security has also been ramped up with around 45,000 police personnel put on duty as per news reports.

For the four-hour long opening ceremony the Indian Olympic Association has chosen veteran paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal, in his fifth appearance in the sports spectacle, and star shuttler P V Sindhu, two-time medal winner and her third Olympics, as the country’s flag bearers.

Sindhu will not only be bidding for another medal but is aspiring to join the short list of the country’s individual Olympic gold medalists – shooter Abhinav Bindra (who won the gold in 2008 in Beijing) and javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra who won the historic gold in athletics three years ago in Tokyo and is bidding to repeat the feat here.

Sindhu and Chopra are among the 117 athletes, comprising 70 men and 47 women, who are taking part in these Games. They would be seen in action in 16 sports disciplines.

Tennis doubles expert Rohan Bopanna is the oldest Indian participant at 44 while swimmer Dhinidi Desinghu is the youngest at the age of 14.

A total of 29 track and field competitors corner the lion’s share of the 117-strong list of Indian athletes here.

India’s medal hunt began yesterday in archery with India making it to the next round of men’s and women’s team events through individual ranking rounds.

Tomorrow on Day 1 of the Games, Indians are scheduled to be seen in badminton, tennis, men’s hockey, shooting, rowing, table tennis and boxing.

Shooting, which provided the country its third individual medal in Athens 2004 through Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, is being held well outside the city.

A total of 21 men and women shooters have qualified for the Games competition and there are significant hopes of a decent medal haul from the range.

In fact the medal haul for India could start on the range tomorrow in the 10 metre air rifle mixed team competition.